CARACAS, (PIC)– Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro has described Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu as “the Herod of modern times,” and offered to take care of Palestinian children orphaned by Israel’s wanton war on the Gaza Strip.

Maduro said that about 500 boys and girls were killed and more than 3000 suffered disabilities during the Israeli offensive.

“Netanyahu is a modern Herod. He wants to eliminate all children of Palestine,” he said in a speech on Friday.

Herod is said to have been a king of ancient West Bank who allegedly ordered the killing of infant boys in Bethlehem to prevent the rise of a messiah to challenge his reign, according to one story in the New Testament.

Maduro said he had made an offer to the Palestinian authorities to take care for several hundred children affected by the war.

“I want to provide a refuge for Palestinian boys and girls who have been injured or traumatized,” he said. “I want to bring a large group of children, as many as 1,000, to study in Venezuela, to grow up in peace and to return home with careers.”